Thomas Popham

“ Having made a running review of "P.'s" long columns, I would in conclusion offer him some advice, which, I trust, he will receive in the same kind way in which it is given. First, do not fear that Popham history will ever in the slightest way overshadow the lustre of Old Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. They stand too firm to be shaken: their true glories will continue to brighten and expand through ages yet to come, till they are appreciated and acknowledged throughout the world. Don't look on the very worst side of history: much of it is bad enough at best ”

“ Do not write so ferociously: people are not frightened by ink, particularly Pophamites. "A kind word turneth away wrath." Don't ruin that preface to the reprint which you have had some two years in process of incubation, by bringing Popham and Gorges into it, when there is no occasion for it. ”

“ They arranged a monster gathering, and invited all creation to celebrate with them the Two-hundred and Fiftieth Popham Anniversary. People came from the ends of the earth; enjoyed a generous Eastern hospitality; "drank water, if not inspiration, out of the existent Popham well" (Query—Is "Sabino" quite sure that the inspiration came from the well?) , believed as much as they could, and had a good time generally. Perhaps history manufactured in this way will stand; but we think not.
Because historical writers have presumed to examine and question their theory, they have grown sullen and morose. ”

“ They rose on the soldiers who landed, and took them prisoners. Popham was recalled, and censured by a court martial for leaving his station; but the City of London presented him with a sword of honour for his endeavours to “open new markets,” and the sentence did him no harm. He held other commands in connexion with the movements of troops, was promoted rear admiral in 1814, and made K.C.B in 1815. He died at Cheltenham on the 10th of September 1820, leaving a large family. Popham was one of the most scientific seamen of his time. ”

“ The younger son of a gentle family, John Popham passed from Oxford to the Middle Temple, raised himself to the honors of the ermine, secured the admiration of illustrious contemporaries, in his latter years gained abundant praise for wholesome severity towards footpads, and at his death left behind him a name—which, tradition informs us, belonged to a man who in his reckless youth, and even after his call to the bar, was a cut-purse and highwayman. ”

“ Heaven grant my Laurie be not too honest, too unsuspicious for his own safety! If he could only be persuaded to take half the care of that he does of the interests of those ungrateful Pophams, there would be no cause for fear.”
Your uncle spoke at last.
“Wee wifie,” he said, “one must not be in a hurry to break a connection of thirty-three years’ standing. I was but two years old when Mr Popham, the father of Francis and John, first took me up. I was an orphan with a bare pittance to maintain me, and no near relations ”

“ POPHAM, Sir JOHN (d. 1463?) , military commander and speaker-elect of the House of Commons, was son of Sir John Popham, a younger son of the ancient Hampshire family of Popham of Popham between Basingstoke and Winchester. His mother's name seems to have been Mathilda (Ancient Deeds, i. 217; Cal. Rot. Pat. p. 322) . His uncle, Henry Popham, the head of the family, inherited, through an heiress, the estates of the Saint Martins at Grinstead in Wiltshire, Dean in Hampshire, and Alverstone in the Isle of Wight ”

“ Wiggin's imprint, were among the least of the motives that induced us to seize upon and devour the contents of this delectable pamphlet.
We confess to a partiality for Popham literature. Its theory is so original, so free from conventional trammels, so utterly at variance with the accepted facts of history, that it is often difficult to persuade one's self that its advocates intend anything more than historical waggery. So we read on, as in other fiction, to be amused.
A false theory zealously defended commonly finds more sympathy than the truth feebly supported. ”

“ William Frederick Poole, Librarian of the Boston Athenæum; that "Sabino" is Rev. Edward Ballard, D. D., of Brunswick, Me.; and that "Orient" and "Sagadahoc" are the signatures of Mr. Frederic Kidder, of Boston.
Each year, since the first Popham Celebration in 1862, memorial services have been held on the Anniversary of the Landing in 1607. Public addresses have been delivered on these occasions, and these have usually been printed. Mr. John A. Poor, of Portland, Me., delivered the Oration in 1862; Mr. George Folsom, of New York, in 1863; Mr. Edward E. Bourne, of Kennebunk, Maine, in 1864 ”

“ The zet had been regathered into the high chief's zetbai and it was not again released. It was not necessary for Popham to return to the royal mines until the following night, so he remained with us, along with Markham, and we all bunked down in the centre of the plaza.
"Is there no way, Professor Quinn," quavered Popham, "whereby we can escape from the inhuman monsters who people this planet? The treatment I have suffered is monstrous! I feel as though I shall die if I have to go back to those royal coal mines again. Being a large man, they expect me to do the work of a dozen Mercurials. ”

“ Elles, “but I am sure she is not a nice nature. She looks a potential murderess with those lowering brows. As for Mrs. Popham, I don’t know her.”
“Ah, but you will!”
“I hope sincerely I shall not,” Mrs. Elles muttered, under her breath. Mrs. Popham might be a noble soul, and a very fair water-colour artist, but still a woman with surely an enquiring mind and a scent for irregular situations.
She began to dread the Pophams and Jane Anne, and to regard them as natural enemies. ”

“ If the laws of the land required criminals to be hung, he cannot be blamed for their administration. Sad indeed will it be for magistrates, if they are to be thus designated because they execute the laws. It would not be [18] difficult to place his character in an honorable light, as he was seen by his contemporaries; and as to his brother, George Popham, he has been truly styled by the historian of ancient Pemaquid, the "worthy" President, whom "New England counts as among the earliest, if not the very first, of her 'illustrious dead.'"
Sabino. ”

“ Popham married Amy, daughter and heiress of Robert Games of Castleton in St. Tathan's, Glamorganshire (or by other accounts, Ann, daughter and heiress of Howel ap Adam of Castleton) . Her portrait, by an unknown hand, belonged in 1866 to Mr. F. L. Popham. Sir John was succeeded by his son, Sir Francis Popham [q. v.] According to Aubrey, Popham ‘left a vast estate to his son, Sir Francis (I thinke ten thousand pounds per annum) ”

“ Style, after all, is greatly a matter of taste, for which there is no accounting. We are now, however, to deal with History; and we promise our friend that our style shall be as rigid and matter-of-fact as he can desire.
"Sabino" complained that we commented on the Popham theory without "stating the theory itself." Our notice was written to be read only by those who are conversant with the historical discussions of the day, not one of whom, probably, is ignorant of what he and his Society have been doing and printing for the past four years. ”

“ But on the morning of the twenty-fourth--Tuesday--I had had a letter--a most cheerful letter--in which Popham informed me that since one of his children had the measles, and another the mumps, and his wife was not well, and his own constitution was slightly unbalanced owing to a little trouble he had had with his motor--he had nearly broken his neck, from what I could gather--it had occurred to him that Christmas under his roof might not be such a festive season as he had hoped, and so he gave me warning. ”

“ Would to Heaven," and here the professor grew suddenly sincere and intensely earnest, "that something would conspire to open your eyes to the exact truth. But I have despaired of that, and I am trying, in my own feeble way, to meet the present emergency."
"You are either a fool or a madman!" cried Popham.
"A rattle-brained zealot!" chimed in Meigs.
"You are the one who should see things differently," said Markham. "You preach a doctrine which you fail to apply personally." ”

“ Popham, with magnificent solemnity and a pair of new calves, gave orders to Meeson and Welsby, and kept little Whelpdale panting for breath with errands; while in and out, between everybody’s legs, and over or under all obstacles, stalked the two ravens Croak James and Croak Elizabeth, a big white wedding-favour tied round the neck of each. To see these grave birds, none would have suspected how frequently they had been in the mince-pies that morning, though Popham had expressly ruled (in somewhat stilted language) that they should “take nothink by their bills.” ”

“ For some reason, (perhaps to surprise us the more when it does come,) the stern logic of truth is withheld; and we are served to empty assertion and vapid declamation in its stead. Every new publication, therefore, of Popham origin, or from the Maine Historical Society, is of interest, as possibly it may contain the suppressed developments. Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay are waiting, gracefully to yield the honors awarded them in history for more than two hundred years to "the Church Colony" of Sagadahoc. ”

“ She's like the sun, that shines on the just 'n' on the unjust. Hen Lord's young ones eat their lunch or their supper there once or twice a week, though the old skinflint's got fifty thousand dollars in the bank."
"Never mind, Bill." said Osh Popham; "there's goin' to be an everlastin' evenupness somewheres! Probably God A'mighty hez his eye on that woman, and He'll see her through. The young ones are growin' up, and the teacher at the academy says they beat the devil on book learnin'! The boy'll make a smart man, pretty soon, and bring good wages home to his mother. ”

“ But though all the girls in Fairhaven had fluttered dove-like before his counter and had divided their admiration between his curly hair, his bold glances, and the printed lawns he showed them, he had not cared for the position in Popham's. It had been no job for a man of his parts—of his shoulders, of his chest. Besides, Popham had expected him to attend to the furnace, to open the store before the day was well awake, and to keep it open until the last light in the village was quenched in darkness. ”

“ Popham replied, “an unclassed creature, a person with no visible means of subsistence or regular occupation. They go about the country seeing whom they can make fools of. There are plenty of them about, I am told. Russian spies, some of them, who worm themselves into families as governesses, and so on, in{145} order to surprise secrets. What this one can possibly want with Mr. Rivers, I can’t tell, but no good, I am sure!”
“Him to marry her!” said Jane Anne sombrely, as one who had thought out thoroughly all the tragic issues of the case. ”

“ MELLICENT “HAPPY is the corpse, they say, that the rain rains on,” observed Mr. Popham, “but knowing his rheumatic nature, I could have wished him a drier day. However, we must take what comes, and it’s curious that what comes is generally what one would have preferred to be without. Life is very like a switchback railway,” continued Mr. Popham. “Now you’re up, a-looking down upon other human beings ”

“ POPHAM AGAIN AND FINALLY.
Our notice of Professor Patterson's Address, in the Advertiser of the 11th of April, has drawn from "Sabino" an extended [21] reply, which appeared ten days later. As our object in noticing the Address was not controversy; and as "Sabino," skirmishing here and there, has made no effective attack on any historical position taken in the criticism, we have doubted the propriety of making a rejoinder. The world is not in haste to become Pophamized. ”

“ All Markham does is to wander about the kingdom with a plate and a paddle begging food enough to keep body and soul together. Think of it! And the great Augustus Popham, owner of a controlling interest in all the great anthracite and bituminous fields of Earth, delving in the mines of this planet—no better than a two-dollar-a-day miner!"
"Coal fields!" ”

“ In 1636 Edward Popham was serving as lieutenant of the Henrietta Maria in the fleet under the Earl of Northumberland (State Papers, Dom. Charles I, cccxliii. 72) , and in March 1637 was promoted to be captain of the Fifth Whelp (ib. cccxlix. 38, 66, cccl. 49) . The Whelps were by this time old and barely seaworthy; most of them had already disappeared, and in a fresh breeze off the coast of Holland, on 28 June 1637, this one, having sprung a leak, went down in the open sea, giving Popham with the ship's company barely time to save themselves in the boat. Seventeen men went down in her. ”

“ Sir John Popham [AV] , Lord Chiefe Justice of the King's Bench, was the ... son of ... Popham, of ... in the countie of Somerset.
He was of the Societie of ... and for severall addicted himselfe but little to the studie of the lawes, but profligate company, and was wont to tak a purse with them. His wife considered her and his condition, and at last prevailed with him to lead another life, and to stick to the studie of the lawe: which, upon her importunity, he did, being then about thirtie yeares old. ”

“ And I may say that we shall exhaust every effort to make other means serve. I feel that it is my duty to return you gentlemen to the place from whence you were taken. I have not accomplished what I had hoped to do, but it is better to be disappointed in that rather than to let King Gaddbai get away in the car with his fifty warriors."
"Certainly it is your duty to send us back," said Meigs, "and you should consider that duty before anything and everything else."
"Exactly!" seconded Popham, "and we must take Gilhooly with us. If one goes, all must go." ”